


Never-ending Summer

by Sharkyboy



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 80s, Alternate Universe, Fluff, I started writing this pre season 7 so there's some inaccuracies, Ice Cream Parlors, Insecure Lance (Voltron), Light Angst, M/M, Slow Burn, Small Towns, Summer Romance, not even seasonal anymore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-01
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-06-20 00:31:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15522117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sharkyboy/pseuds/Sharkyboy
Summary: It's summer and Lance is intrigued by the mysterious boy who just moved into the town.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, this is my first fic and I'm really excited to be posting. If you have any comments or criticisms please feel free to post and thank you for reading :)

It started like all the other days that summer- hot and sticky. Lance woke up to beads of sweat already forming on his forehead and the sounds of insects buzzing around and chattering to one another, even they seemed more productive than him in the warm summer morning. He closed his eyes again and breathed deeply, basking in the sunlight filtered through the open window, and his mouth stretched into a slow, relaxed grin. He had always liked the summer, with its languid days that stretched for ages and the unproductiveness that went along with them. He guessed it was because he was a summer child, born on a day just like this in a small hospital in Cuba, surrounded by noise and activity and more importantly, his family.

Lance took his time in showering and dressing before making himself some cereal on the breakfast counter. It was quiet. none of his siblings were awake yet, a rare occurrence he thought, and he let himself enjoy a bit of the peace before the rush of colour and noise that usually filled the kitchen came flooding in. He turned on the tv to watch the morning news, something he liked to do often, some people were surprised that he was as knowledgeable as he was in politics and the daily affairs of the world but he just liked knowing what was going on everywhere and he figured that he wouldn’t be too bad at diplomacy. His mum was the next downstairs and he kissed her goodbye as he walked out the house and into the sun.

His bike was old and slightly rusty despite his best efforts in maintaining it, he had won it in a fair when he was 12 and had loved it ever since, the blue paint job had inspired the name ‘Blue’ and when he first got it, it was far too big for him to ride. That didn’t stop him though, he looked almost comical racing down the street on a bike whos pedals he could barely reach yet that didn’t stop him from riding it everywhere he went. All the use left it needing various fix-ups and the chain kept coming off yet he didn’t have the heart to replace her so this was he used to ride down the street to the local ice-cream parlour most days. 

The shop had just opened and as Lance opened the door the bell softly jingled, alerting the attention of Pidge who was standing behind the counter, looking annoyed to even be awake at such a time. “Oh it’s you again,” She said while stifling a yawn.

“And aren’t you glad to see me,” Lance quickly retorted

“Are you actually going to buy something this time or are you just going to sit here and annoy Hunk and me while we actually work?”

“You love me really, Pidge.” Lance then grinned and leant against the counter, enjoying the cool feeling of the counter against the palms of his hands.

“I love you when you aren’t using up space and scaring customers away. Plus you only come in here because it’s cold, you wouldn’t come round and talk to us at work if we worked in a sunglass kiosk at the beach or something.”

“first of all, there isn’t even a beach around here, second of all I love the beach and lastly, customers are way more likely to come inside once they see my beautiful face in here. I should be one of those people who stand outside with free samples and lure people inside.”

“There’s no way in hell we’re giving you any free samples, you’ll eat the entire tray before you’re even out the door.”

“Hey!” Lance blurted out, “I’ve got better self-control than that!” Pidge rolled her eyes and smirked to herself as she got back to work and set up the cash register. It was then when Hunk walked out of the storeroom and greeted Lance with a friendly “Hey man!”

“It’s nice to know that someone here appreciates my presence,” Lance said to Pidge’s vague direction.

 

Lance got himself some mint chocolate chip, much to the chagrin of Pidge who commented that anyone who likes that flavour should have their taste buds removed, but Lance just smiled and deliberately sit on the table nearest to the front of the counter so he could eat it right in front of her face. The morning passed by with little to no excitement and the only thing keeping Lance from falling asleep were the overly happy tunes blasting from the speakers and the stream of people wandering into the shop, tinkling the bell on the door. Soon the people died down and there were only a couple left. Two of which included a mother and her daughter sitting near the window, the little girl was only around 2 or 3 and had a big smear of chocolate ice cream around her face; she kept giggling and squirming as her mother tried to wipe it off her face and Lance watched blissfully as they looked so content in what seemed like their own little world. 

He was awoken from his trance when Allura walked in, she was away in college in England most of the year and only during the summer did Lance see much of her. It was her uncle Coran that actually owned the ice-cream parlour and when she was back in the town she worked in the animal sanctuary near there, she was unlike any other girl Lance had ever met. It wasn’t just her stunning looks that attracted her to him, but the way she carried herself with an air of confidence and a surety that Lance wished he had himself. She was smart, and brave and kind and she really helped him out last summer when he needed someone but most importantly, she was taken. She had recently started dating Lotor, son of a politician Zarkon, Lance didn’t like his father or his policies but he had come to respect and trust Lotor over time, however this did nothing to help the jealousy he felt every time he saw them together. Allura had a slight British accent from studying in the UK but Lance found it rather endearing and it made him pay even more attention to whatever she was saying, not that he needed much help to begin with.

“Oh hi Lance, here again, I see. Bumping into you here is turning into quite the common occurrence,” Allura said fondly. 

“Oh yeah, just trying to get away from the heat,” he replied

“I know what you mean, I’m having to keep the air conditioning on full blast all the time. It’s lucky we have those here you know, in England no one has any air conditioning only heaters so they suffer all through the summer.”

“I can't even imagine having to do that,” Lance lied. The air conditioning in his house had been broken for a while now and it was too expensive to fix so it was easier just to leave it as is; they survived on cheap fans with batteries that they strategically angled to their face while they slept. “You planning to come to the arcade with us later?” He asked

“I’m really sorry but I’m working late tonight, maybe another time?”

“Yeah, definitely.” Lance forced a smiled out and looked away from her, trying to look for the mother and daughter again but they were already gone. Allura finished the rest of her ice cream as they continued to make small talk, Lance had succeeded in making her laugh a couple times and at that moment that was enough for him but she soon had to go back to work and Lance had to go back to doing absolutely nothing for the millionth time that summer.

 

________________

 

 

“So, you got the balls to finally confess your feelings to Allura yet?” Pidge teased, putting some coins into the arcade game they always played together. Lance got defensive pretty quickly,

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said while looking away to the air hockey table at the near back of the arcade. “Hey, is that new?” Lance asked.

Hunk finally chimed into the conversation with a sly grin, “Oh don’t try to change the subject, you’re head over heels for her.”

Pidge put her hand up to her forehead in an imitation of a swoon, “Oh Lance, I just love you so much, I’m never going back to England, I just want to stay in your arms.”

“Anything for you my darling Allura,” Hunk finished off the mock play with a wide arms stance in from of Pidge. They burst out laughing, Lance wasn’t as amused but had to let himself chuckle lightly at the dramaticism of his friends.

“Oh cut it out guys,” He said as he wandered towards the air hockey table.

Pidge informed them that Matt had just put it in yesterday and that they would be one of the first people to play on it. Hunk replied with “Aw Sweet,” and Lance was happy that the conversation had moved on, he didn’t like to dwell on things too much besides, summer wasn’t a time for thinking or stressing he just wanted to chill and have fun with his friends.

The first round was Pidge and Hunk against Lance. He had a readied stance: his face near the table with his eyes almost level, his breath clouding the smooth metal of the table; a hand gripping the paddle with a sure grip and the other firmly planted on the table next to his body more cautiously, prepared to change position at any second; and his feet planted solidly on the tacky carpeted floor of the arcade. The game began with a sharp buzz and immediately the puck went whizzing towards Lance’s corner but not for long, he sent it back faster than every with a sharp precision that neither Pidge nor Hunk could retaliate. He let out a shout of joy as he scored his first goal of the game. “Don’t get too used to that buddy,” Pidge responded.

Lance’s smile grew bigger, “Really? Bring it on,” He jeered

“Oh you got it,” Hunk said.

And so it continued, a tight match until the end with Pidge and Hunk managing to get quite a lead on Lance and him catching up to them and eventually, he won.

“Best out of three!” Pidge called out.

Lance celebrated his victory by dancing around the table to the various rhythms of the bleeping and shooting from surrounding video games. “You just can’t stand to be beaten by me, can you?”

“No, best out of three and I wanna up the steaks this time. If you win I’ll buy you whatever ice-cream you want, no matter how ridiculous, every day for the rest of the month.” Lance’s ears perked up at this, he was suddenly way more invested in what Pidge had to say after that. “And I won’t even complain about you hanging around the shop,” She continued.

Hunk interjected her “Wait, Pidge are you really sure you wanna do this, you’ll be penniless by the end of the first week.”

“Oh I’m sure”

“And if I lose?” Lance questioned

“You can’t hang around the ice-cream parlour doing nothing for the rest of the month.”

Lance contemplated this for a second and then he spat on his palm and held it out towards Pidge, “Oh you’re on.”

Pidge repeated the action and shook their hands together, a binding pact.

This game was faster than the last, the sounds and colours of the background faded as each player concentrated, more determined to win than ever. The players didn’t talk much, only the occasional ‘fuck’ was muttered or a sharp inhale of breath after scoring a goal; the tension rose as Pidge and Hunk won the first game, leaving Lance on edge yet he seemed to keep his cool. “Just need one more game, you got this buddy,” he muttered to himself. Ricocheting off the walls of the table, the puck whizzed to Lance who parried it back to the other side, Hunk’s incredible defence kept him from getting the winning shot but it was Pidge who knew the right angles to shoot at and finally clinch their victory. 

Hunk and Pidge lept up “Yes!” They screamed. 

The spell was broken. Lance woke from his deep focus, still dazed from the game. “I lost.”

Hunk was still smiling and dancing around with Pidge “I gotta admit I was scared for while back there, you really had us, Lance”

“I’m so happy I didn’t just give away all my money an ice-cream guzzling fiend!”

“Well you have got the advantage you know, it’s two against one. If I had someone else I would totally beat your asses.” He smiled and joked with his friends, not truly upset that they had beat him.

So out they wandered out into the night air with the sun remained stubbornly in the sky, Pidge and Hunk still glowing from the win and Lance just happy to be there with his friends. 

 

________________

 

 

Lance found himself at the library the following day, he had instinctively cycled to the ice-cream parlour and had to remind himself again to steer away so he rode around town for a while before settling down in the ancient structure the town called a library. It was nice enough for the fact that half a wing had completely collapsed and was sectioned off, the crumbling walls had a cosy feel to it but the dust from the books was clearly visible in the streaks of sunlight streaming through the massive windows at the back. He wandered further into the library, past the kids' section with the ageing yellow paint on the walls and past the sections of thick volumes that remained untouched apart from the unfortunate college student who decided to write their thesis on the subject. Lance pried back various metal gates and shimmied through the small spaces to finally get through to his spot.

He discovered it freshman year, running from some kids he probably shouldn’t of mess with but he’s used it ever since and turned it into his own little space. The sunlight gently warmed the place through the cracks in the wall, creating a soft glow and the blankets he placed there provided him with much need warmth during the winter. A small collection of books were strewn over the place from when he had brought them up and never bothered to return them, it’s not like anyone would miss them much he supposed; they were on a wide range of topics from prehistoric Sharks and the Vietnam war to travel books about Cuba and the occasional comic book. Lance perched on the makeshift windowsill he made with planks of wood and turned on his walkman, seeking comfort from the likes of The Cure and Frank Sinatra.

It felt odd not to be with his friends and he started to wonder what they would be up to, if there weren’t many people Pidge and Hunk were probably mixing various flavours together to create the ultimate franken flavour, did Pidge really not want him there? It’s alright, after the end of the month he would be able to come back and it would all go back to normal, he could still hang out with them outside the parlour as well, so he took a deep breath to try and clear his thoughts. It (mostly) worked. 

It was the height afternoon when the sun had moved to shine directly on his nook and Lance felt there need to go eat something, so he strolled into the real world again and bought a sandwich from a small cafe which he ate as he walked Blue home. Turning a corner, he found Allura walking down the street with Lotor, smiling and laughing and just enjoying each others company. Lance’s stomach turned but the forced a smile, “Hey guys.”

“Hi Lance, we were hoping to run into you actually,” Allura said, “I was looking for you in the parlour but you weren’t there.”

Lance’s stomach fluttered, his smile turning into something more real “Well, I can't have too much ice-cream, I’ve gotta stay fit for the ladies.”

Alurra giggled slightly at that, “I’m sure they’ll like you no matter what, Lance”

“So anyway,” Lotor interjected, “we wanted to ask you something.”

“Yeah um who’s the new family?” Allura asked

“What new family?”

“Oh. You don’t know? They just moved in on your street today so I assumed you knew something about them. I think I heard something a boy who’s planning to go to the high school, apparently he’s around your age.”

Lance cringed at being called a boy but the new information made him perk up again. His mind raced with possibilities, a new friend could be just what he needed to liven up the summer a little.

“Hunk might know a little more about him actually.” And with that Allura continued walking down the road, Lotor’s hand now around her waist but Lance didn’t seem care as much, he was too busy racing home on Blue, his sandwich completely disregarded.

 

“Hey ma,” He bent down to kiss his mother on her cheek “so there’s a new family-“

“No, no sweetie. Here, help me with this,” and with that, she handed Lance and pile of wet laundry and walked into the garden, he obligated of course and quickly followed her out. “They just came here today so don’t bother them just yet alight? Let them relax a little first.”

“So what you’re saying is I can go visit them tomorrow?”

She swatted him on his neck with the back of her hand and gave him a warning glare. “alright alright, i’ll be patient,” He said with his signature grin on his face.

She looked at him as if she didn’t trust him with that and they went back to hanging up the clothes in a comfortable silence. As he finished with his pile and started heading back inside she called after him “Just give them a couple days okay.”

“Yes, ma.”

“But they’ve got a dog, a large one.”

That cheered him up a little, and he smiled as he walked up to his bedroom where he remained for the rest of the day, thinking about the boy he hadn’t even seen yet and his pet dog.

 

 

________________

 

 

The next few days passed by way too slowly in Lance's opinion, he spent them lazing around the house and looking after his siblings- playing along with Veronica and her tea parties, where he ended up being replaced with a stuffed bear part of the way through and pretending to be spies with Marco. They mainly just rolled around the house repeating fake mission statuses, but was a hell of a lot of fun, especially when Marco fell to the floor laughing at Lance’s (pretty cheesy) jokes and ended up scaring the neighbour’s cat who they were planning to capture. “If you wanna be a good spy, you’ve gotta learn how to laugh quieter,” Lance said as he lunged towards Marco and tickling him.

“Stop, Lance, stop,” he choked out through mouthfuls of fitful laughter.

Lance eventually gave him mercy and halted his attack, they were both on the floor out of breath but when they made eye contact again and continued laughing, feeling lightheaded and dizzy after.

Sometime during the few days, Lance had to wait he let Veronica braid his hair, although his thin hair meant the braids rarely stayed for more than a few seconds. “Stay still Lance,” she demanded, squinting concentration.

“I’m trying, you’re just pulling my hair”

“Well try harder,” she sighed and grabbed a few more strands to work on.

Lance didn’t actually mind her braiding, he thought it was kind of relaxing, almost therapeutic even, and he closed his eyes to concentrate on the music playing in the background. “I bet Romelle would let me braid her hair, she’s got really pretty hair.”

“Who’s Romelle?”

“She just moved in, didn’t you know?”

“Wait, I thought there was a boy living there, you sure you got your facts right?”

“I didn’t see any boy there, Romelle told me herself that she just moved in.”

“Interesting,” Lance whispered to himself, more curious than ever now.

“Lie down, I wanna put a face mask on you.” And Lance did exactly that, letting the coolness of the sheet sooth his racing mind.

 

Lance became more productive to try and quell his insatiable curiosity, he poured over his mum’s old cookbooks searching for something easier to make. His siblings were all spread on the floor of the living room, only half paying attention to the cartoon on the tv. “How do you guys feel about papas rellenas?”

“Oooo, can you them like mum does?’ Luis chimed.

“Um I don’t know about that, why don’t you come help me?” They all jumped and ran to the tiny kitchen to wreak unknown havoc. “Can you guys help me find the cumin, it says here that we need some.” They didn’t have any so Lance just added in cinnamon instead, they’re both orange spices so it should work, right? The recipe ended up mainly ignored with everyone adding in random ingredients at the end to ‘make it look how it does when mum makes it’, but when they shaped them they came out lumpy and misshaped, with some of the beef attempting to escape out, but no one really cared. There was a think dusting of flour on the counter and barely any coating the papas rellenas itself(courtesy to Marco who vigorously shook each one to get rid of the excess and the majority of the flour on there) and Lance ended up with more mashed potatoes and flour in his hair than he’d probably ever consumed in his life. Lance got to work cleaning up as they were chilling in there fridge, not trusting his siblings to return the kitchen back to its normal state, and whistled along to the radio.

“Hey kids, ready to taste our creation?” He called out after finishing frying the last one. They looked slightly better now that they were cooked, but that wasn’t really saying much. Luis got the forks out and Lance stabed a fork in each one before handing them to each of his siblings, cringing at the heavy scent of cinnamon. “Okay, who wants to take to the first bite?” No one seemed at all enthusiastic to try it so Lance bit the bullet and took a brave chunk out of it, his siblings soon following suit. “Oh sweet God,” he whispered before reluctantly swallowing the chunk, his siblings were less pleased and even spat it right back out again. Veronica had a face of true disgust, 

“that is the worse thing I have ever tasted in my life.” She choked out.

“Agreed,” Marco said.

So Lance moved to plan B and got out some popsicles from the freezer for everyone.

“I was saving these for a time of need and I think this is it.” He dished them out to everyone and chuckled as they gobbled down the treat as fast as they could to get rid of the taste of ruined papas rellenas, “Slow down guys, let’s go out back to eat them in the garden.”

So his siblings all followed suit as he perched himself on the grass, he thought to himself how someone should really water the grass out here and mentally put it on his to-do list. His siblings around him all laughed and played around outside, with sticky hands and carefree hearts and Lance watched them peacefully from where he was sat.

It was later that day after the sun went down and after his sixth consecutive game of go fish with Luis that he let his mind wander back to the boy, who may or may not exist, down the street and made up his mind to go visit him tomorrow.

 

So the day eventually rolled around, the sun seemed the be against him as it hid behind layers of clouds, cooling the day that would’ve been sweltering to cloying humidity. Lance’s blanket was hanging on the bed on only a corner and he used his half asleep foot to push it further and spread his body to increase his surface area as much as possible, a half-hearted attempt to cool down further. He felt the excitement move slowly upwards and curl his lips into a drowsy smile, then he was bounding down the stairs with a light spring in his step. “What’s got you so happy?” His mum questioned.

“Nothing, just thinking of checking out the new family today.”

She moved to affectionately tousle his hair “I suppose it has been a couple days.”

“Oh, and I wouldn’t touch the papas rellenas if I were you,” Lance quickly said as he moved towards to door and got on Blue.

A ride around was exactly what he needed to calm down a bit he thought, and so he cycled passed the ice cream parlour, the library and the small cafes too until he circled the fountain and made his way into the forest. Darting around trees and speeding down the slope, Lance found a steady rhythm to keep to and was laughing as the wind whipped his hair around his face and finally felt cool against his skin, that was until he heard a gunshot and a flock of birds flying out of the trees. “Ah, shit!” Lance yelled as he lost control of Blue and had to swerve a big oak tree harshly when regaining his grip on Blue. Unfortunately, he didn’t regain his balance and managed to collapse ungracefully on the floor, Blue falling on top of him. 

“Need help there, buddy?” 

Lance looked up and saw the face of Coran peering at him, his bushy orange moustache in full view. “Yeah, that’d be great.”

Coran got Blue off him and Lance did the rest, pulling himself up with a hip and an even more bruised hip. “I’m sorry for scaring you there, Lance. It was only a blank, I was trying to scare away the house sparrows.”

“The house sparrows?”

“They may look harmless but they’re actually an invasive species and there eating all the vegetables I’m planting!”

“Well, have fun.” And with that Lance turned to leave but Coran stopped him,

“Hey, why aren’t you in the ice-cream parlour? I knew something was off about you today.”

“Just tryin’ out something new”

“Something new huh,” Coran said as his eyebrows furrowed deep into his head and nodding slightly, “I like it.”

Trying out something new? Really? Was that the best he could come up with? Why was he _such an idiot_? Why couldn’t he bring himself to tell him about the bet? Fuck. Lance quickened his pace and rode on home with the sun now staring down more prominently in the sky.

 

Lance almost stopped in front of his house when he chose to go further on instead, to the new family in town. This was finally his chance. He got off Blue, leaning her against the front gate and walked up to the door with trepidation, he rang the doorbell. The house was pretty average and fit in well with the rest of the homes, but it was slightly more run down than the others; there hadn’t been anyone living in there for a while and it showed on the unkempt garden and the rickety porch steps. He heard the dog first, barking and bounding down the hallway to the door followed by a male voice telling it to quieten down and not get so excited. A few more seconds of silence. Then, the door opened.

 

It was a boy, it was the boy but something about his demeanour threw Lance off, he had a nice face sure- hair much darker and longer than Lance’s that fell into his eyes and high cheekbones, but he wasn’t smiling. Nothing on him at all showed any amusement or courtesy, there was some annoyance showing so Lance put on his best smile to try and win him over and said “Hey, I’m Lance. I live just down the street and I saw you just moved in. I could show you around if you like.” Nothing.

“No thanks,” the boy said and he closed the door, right in Lance’s face.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapter where they keep bumping into each other, thanks for reading :)  
> (also the notes at the end carried on from last chapter for some reason so please ignore them)

“His name’s Keith” Hunk mentioned as Lance, Pidge and himself walked through the forest lining their town.

Pidge kicked a small rock from her path and added: “Well Keith’s a jerk.”

“Yeah, the next time I see him I’m gonna give him a piece of my mind,”

“What’s that Lance? You can hardly throw a punch, and from the way you described him so sounds… scary,” Hunk said, “It would be best just to leave him alone.”

“Even if I do that we’re still gonna see him next year for school anyway, what’s the point?”

Pidge look up at Lance and smirked, “Well the point is you’re not gonna get your ass kicked until at least the next school year, and I don’t know about you but I consider that a bonus.”

They continued walking down the steep ‘pathway’, where most of the path had been covered by overgrown plants below and the gnarled fingers of the trees above. They made their way out using their years of experience playing in these forests when they were younger, Lance thinking back to Keith despite not seeing him since he slammed the door in his face last week.

Lance sat on a tree stump, finishing the pity ice-cream Hunk gave him for when he heard what had happened with Keith and watched Pidge and Hunk get long branches and whack them at the trees to get some apples. They were failing to realise that hitting the apples and making them fall is what bruises them and makes them unappealing to eat, or maybe they did notice but just didn’t care. “Catch” Hunk called to Lance, who only just noticed and caught it right before it would’ve hit the ground. 

“You’ll have to do better to catch me out, Hunk” Lance grinned “I’m like a ninja, super speed and super stealth, my eyes are always peeled and looking out for the unexpected, ow!”

“Sorry Mr ninja, did your super speed make you miss that one?” Lance pick an apple off the floor and flung it back to her in retaliation and shrugged off his jacket, now covered in mushed apple.

 

By the time they all got out of there they were all covered in apple mush, Lance complained “This is gonna take forever to wash out of my hair, and I think there’s a worm on me somewhere,” however before he could go home and have a nice shower, he remembered the grocery list his mum gave him this morning. “Sorry guys, I’ve gotta go get some groceries, I’ll catch you guys later.” He tuned to wave goodbye as he strolled in the direction of the grocery store, among other small shops such as the one run by the man who’s rumoured to be running from the police and haberdashery run by two frail old ladies- one who smokes like a chimney and the other who breathes it all in. He fished out a semi-used tissue to try and clear out most of the apple from his t-shirt and hair, it didn’t really work but he figured it was better than nothing.

The lights inside were a bright white, reminiscent of hospital lighting, and entering was like leaving behind the real world into a cold unnatural one; the same went with the people. He saw Keith as soon as he entered, milling around in the bread section so Lance (of course) deliberately went to the other end of the supermarket to avoid him as much as possible but the universe was far too mean to let that happen. Lance, too busy checking the food in his shopping cart to the list to notice, had bumped into someone, when he looked up he stuttered out a quick, “Sorry, Keith.”

He received a glare and a turned back when suddenly Keith stopped and turned.

“Wait, how do you know my name? Are you… stalking me?”

“You’re the last person I would stalk.” Lance shot back, to which Keith raised his eyebrows. “Someone told me, my um… my mum sent me here to get stuff,” he said as just raised the list in his hands.

“Well tell that someone to stop giving out my name.”

“Sure thing, Keith.”

He rolled his eyes and carried on his grocery shopping, walking further down the aisle to pick out some jam, Lance grinned at his annoyance.

“Oh, by the way, can you smell…apples?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Lance said before promptly walking away.

 

As he walked outside he saw Keith getting onto a black and red bike, “Woah, cool ride,” Lance said as he admired the bike in front of him. Keith looked back and muttered a quick thanks before shooting off down the road. He didn’t seem so bad, maybe he’d be alright, Lance thought to himself. He walked home carrying the shopping bags with the scolding sun beating onto him, he regretted not bringing Blue out earlier today but sighed out his frustrations and carried on the journey. When arriving at his house he saw Keith’s figure looking out the window, he waved and Keith responded by hastily closing his curtains, but Lance didn’t expect anything more from him.

He slowly smiled as he dropped and unloaded the bags and strolled upstairs to shower and stayed in his room reading comics until dinner.

“Thank you for getting the groceries, Lance,” his mum said from across the table

He looked up from his plate, reeled back in from his thoughts by the comment, “No problem,” he uttered before eating his dinner in an unusual silence.

“You seem distracted, something wrong?” His mum asked

“Just thinking 'bout something.”

His mum left it and went back to chatting with his dad and siblings, listening patiently to Luis’s story about the injured bird he saw in the garden. It was a while before the conversation was brought back to Lance again.

“What’s the new family like?” Marco asked him earnestly.

“Um nice, I think. Well, I only really met one guy.”

Veronica stopped chewing her food and gargled out “Keith, right?” Almost intelligibly.

“Yeah, how does everyone know his name?”

“We live in a small town,” she replied “Word travels fast.”

Then the conversation drifted away again and Lance excused himself to retire back to his quaint little room, that night he couldn’t fall asleep until about midnight though- too many thoughts spinning in his head.

 

________________

 

The next days all blurred into one, nothing special about his new monotonous routine that consisted of him waking up, walking around town and sitting outside the ice-cream parlour waiting for Pidge or Hunk to go on their break. The day was again hot and humid, it was like the weather kept using these days as a distraction so it could keep storing moisture up and up until one day it would finally unleash a never-ending rain, but for now, it remained the same; Lance missed the rain on particularly muggy days like these. He lent further back onto the bench and stretch his legs out in front of him as far as they could go, letting the sticky air surround him and using the tip of his shoe roll around a small rock on the cracked stone floor.

“Hey,” Pidge said as she plopped down beside him on the bench, “Nyma’s having a party on Saturday, you coming?”

Lance’s eyes lit up “of course, you know we almost went out last year, she’ll definitely want me there.”

“You know she was just using you to do her homework for her, right?”

“yeah, but while she was doing that I put on my charm you see,” he replied and then began explaining his step by step plan to winning any woman (most of the steps seemed either way too improbable or just ineffective) there was no wonder why he was as unsuccessful as he was. Although, there were still some girls who he managed to win over with his ‘amazing personality’ and ‘charming looks’ who seemed to really adore him, their relationships never lasted very long though. They chatted for a bit longer and made plans to watch a movie in the cinema later that week, Lance thought it sounded kinda lame but decided to join Pidge and Hunk cause it’s not like he had anything better to do, if the movie did turn out to be shit at least he could joke about it with them throughout.

 

As she left him he spotted a familiar figure open the door to the ice-cream parlour and walk by, he called out a greeting and the figure reluctantly stopped. “”Is this what you do? Hang out outside ice-cream parlours by yourself and harass the people who walk by?”

“Well, it’s a better way of making friends than ignoring everyone.” Lance retorted. “I was actually about to go home, I could help guide your way if you want.”

He slowly got up from the bench and walked over to where Keith was standing, grinning all the way.

He received another glare, well at least he was getting something from him, “I don’t need your help, I think I can find my way back by myself.” Keith said curtly and started walking towards their street.

Lance jogged to get where Keith was and started walking backwards with him to face him more clearly. “I highly doubt that, it’s pretty easy to get lost when you’re new.”

“and it’s pretty easy to bump into things when you’re walking backwards,” Keith added

“Well, yeah but I’m-“ Lance’s shoulder hit a streetlamp, halting him in his tracks for a second,“ah shit!” There was a slight of a smile etched onto Keith’s face and he took this opportunity to gain the lead and continued to walk alone, until Lance joined him again but next to him and facing forwards this time. “As I was saying,” Lance continued, “I know this town pretty well, there’s a bunch of hidden places you’d never find on your own, so I’d take that tour if I were you.”

Keith hummed slightly, not giving Lance much of an indication of a decision so Lance decided to be quiet for the rest of the journey home and so they walked back in an only slightly uncomfortable silence.

The following day, or night really but the sun hadn’t gone down yet, Lance sat in the living room with all his siblings watching some late night talk show with a celebrity he had never heard of before. “Lance, can I have Lucy back?” Veronica asked him. Lucy was a doll she had, one of favourite, she was only about 5 inches tall with porcelain skin and white blonde hair, dressed in a Victorian style nightdress. Lance always thought of her as a little creepy but his grandma gave it to her so she loved it. “I put it in your jacket so you could have her for the day.”

“Why did you do that?”

“You looked sad, I thought she could bring you some luck so you’d be happier.” She smiled earnestly

Lane rushed upstairs to his bedroom to root around for his jacket, “ I’m looking for her now!” He shouted out as he checked under his bed for it, he frantically searched his wardrobe for any sign of it, Veronica would never speak to him again if he lost her. “Shit,” he thought aloud, “I left it in the forest.” He ran out the front door, blurting out a quick “I think I left my jacket somewhere, I’ll bring her back to you in a sec.” before he slammed the door shut and sped away on Blue towards the forest.

The sun began to slowly sink into the ground, casting hues of orange and yellow to dance across the sky and illuminating the surrounding area. Lance would’ve taken some time to appreciate if he wasn’t too busy rushing away. Weaving his way through thickets of fern and other plants he chose to ditch Blue in a somewhat clear area and make the rest of the way by foot, although this was probably the best decision it didn’t feel like it at the time; the shorts on the other hand, was definitely an awful decision. He found the apple tree relatively quickly but now came the hard part- looking for a jacket among all the foliage at near night without a flashlight. Great, just great. 

Scrambling through the plants, Lance suddenly collided with a solid mass; both he and the mass let out a yelp as they recoiled from the other person. “Lance?” It said, “Are you sure you’re not stalking me?”

“Hey! I should be asking you the same question. You’re everywhere I go.”

“But I’m pretty sure it was you who first approached me.”

Lance brushed that aside, “That’s beside the point, what are you even doing here?”

“Well…what are _you_ doing here?” Keith said accusingly

“looking for my jacket.”

“You came out in the forest in the dark to _look for a jacket_? That’s pretty odd timing.”

“It’s got my sister’s doll in it, I left it here.”

“So now you’re a stalker and a thief?”

Lance rolled his eyes but Keith seemed quite amused. “You never even answered my question, are you a vampire? A werewolf? A witch? I knew there was something off about you.”

Now it was Keith’s turn to look annoyed, “It’s not even a full moon you dumbass, how could I be a werewolf?” Lance raised his eyebrows and smirked “I was just…taking a walk.” Keith continued

“At night?”

“Yes, at night.”

This led Lance to casually stroll around the spot around Keith as if he was surveying a prey, “Because it seems like you’re lost.”

Keith stood his ground and stared right at Lance “I’m not lost.” He stated through gritted teeth.

“Alright, I’ll just leave you here then, I’ll look for my jacket tomorrow.”

“Wait!” Keith called out with a slight edge of panic in his voice, he shifted his feet uncomfortably “I’m lost. Now can you please help me get out of here.” He said the last part a little softer, his eyes no longer looking at Lance and had found the ground.

“On one condition”

Keith interrupted him quickly “I’ll go on your stupid tour, alright?”

“How’d ya know that’s what I was gonna ask?”

“You’re not exactly subtle.”

Keith also agreed to help Lance look for his jacket, eventually finding it hidden under a log a little ways from the clearing. He pulled Lucy out the pocket and investigated her, “she’s kinda creepy lookin'.” He finally said

Lance walked over to grab his jacket back, “That’s what I always thought.” 

He managed to lead Keith back out into the open, collecting Blue along the way and parting ways at his porch. “Oh, there’s a party on Saturday up on Hillsborough Lane, you should come. You could meet some of your new classmates.” He blurted out as Keith began to walk to his house. Keith turned back for a fraction of a second, “I’ll think about it.” And off he walked.

 

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I stopped writing for a while and a lot has changed, but hopefully I'm gonna to get back into it. This fic isn't even seasonally appropriate now but oh well, hope you enjoy :) (Also please ignore the note at the end I can't manage to get rid of it from the first chapter)

Lance woke up the next morning in the same dazed state as usual, this time unable to figure out if last night did happen or was some hyper-realistic fantasy his mind concocted to mess with him. His mind fucking with him was more definitely more likely than Keith finally agreeing to the full Lance McClain tour and guide (complete with gift bags) so he accepted it wasn’t real. But he couldn’t help but think back to the way Keith looked in the street with the dim lights from semi closed windows softly illuminating his face, and how genuine he looked when he asked for help in the forest. The whole experience had a hazy glow around it but no, no way it wasn’t real. It couldn’t have been. Lance’s now more awake awake mind could remember how a cool night breeze swept across his face on the walk back and no way could that have been fabricated. So yeah, I guess it was real after all. That put an involuntary smile on his face before he could even realise it and he lowered his eyes a little bit before muttering a small “nice.” To himself. 

As he got dressed and poured himself some cereal his mind couldn’t help but wander back to Keith, well not just Keith but all his friends. Well, mainly Keith. He couldn’t help it, it was something about him that made him want to know more, Lance knew it was stupid to fixate over a boy who was kind of a jerk and didn’t seem to wanna get to know him but his mind wanders, especially on the lacklustre day, or week, or even summer that it’s been. The party. There’ll probably be some college kids there he mused, douchebag friends of Nyma’s boyfriend Rolo probably but at least that meant that there was also more of a chance of Allura showing up. Maybe he shouldn’t be to quick to judge, Rolo was always the stoner kid at school but Lance didn’t think he did anything that bad, or maybe he did. The beginning of high school wasn’t even that long ago but freshman and sophomore year kind of blends into one when he thinks back to them, it’s weird to think that in the future he’ll look back and his high school years will just be a blip, this summer just another forgettable space of time. He snapped back to reality by the itch of a mosquito bite on his leg and scolded himself for getting so off topic- the party. It’s only Tuesday, so another couple days to sludge through before the big event and nothing to keep his mind off it. Actually no, there’s the movie with Pidge and Hunk and the tour too get started on. He shovelled the last few spoons of cinnamon toast crunch into his mouth before placing the bowl in the sink and propelling himself upstairs to start working. Finally, a project.

It was about early afternoon when Lance finally walked out the door with his plan fully assembled, he’d only shown himself beyond the boundaries of his room for occasional toilet breaks or to make a quick sandwich for lunch and even then he was only half hearted paying attention to anything beside his own thoughts. He ended up putting mayo and jam together and nearly gagged when he put it in his mouth. While toiling away he managed to create a detailed list of places to visit and when, making sure to create the ideal guide to the town and all the hidden gems it has to offer if you know where to look. Of course the ice cream parlour and the cinema were on there but also the more personal places that he didn’t think he would ever show to anyone, and to be honest he’s not 100% sure why he did. 

He slowly walked across the street, to Keith’s house, slightly hesitant of his actions but eventually managed to get there and press the rusted doorbell. A slightly disheveled Keith opened the door, blocking the opening with body to prevent the large dog from bounding out onto the street.  
“Oh, it’s you again,” Keith frowned slightly, gripping his left arm with his right hand in an almost awkward manner. “I was hoping I would get away with at least one without you.”  
Lance burst into a wide grin, “You can’t get rid of me that easily.” He responded, “Plus you made a deal yesterday-“  
“And I wasn’t aware the effects were so sudden”  
“Here you go, to honour our arrangement.” Lance then handed over a lanyard with a homemade card inside that read Special pass to Lance McClain’s full tour and guide with special guest Lance McClain  
Keith tentatively reached over to take it from him, “Special pass, huh.”  
“It grants you visits to the super exclusive locations, I only give those ones to the people who especially annoy me.”  
Keith chuckled softly at that and Lance took that as a job well done. “Be ready on Thursday at 5, I’ll be here to pick you up.  
“Will I get to know what I’m doing?”  
“That’s a surprise, not even special pass holders get that privilege.” And he left Keith standing on his rickety porch still running his thumb over the pass.

——————  
“Hey, we would’ve gotten here quicker is someone didn’t knock over the huge sprinkles jar two minutes before closing, I think i’ll be seeing multicoloured dots everywhere for the rest of my life.” Pidge complained as she slid into the booth.  
“Who the hell puts a huge jar of sprinkles on the edge on a counter anyway, it was pretty much guaranteed it was gonna spill one day,” Hunk rebutted  
“Well, it didn’t have to be today.”  
Lance took another long sip of his milkshake and chuckled, “It’s good to know you’re still having fun without me.”  
“I don’t know man, I think your presence is still there. I saw a little girl just staring into space at one of the spots you used to sit at,” Hunk leaned forward slightly when saying that, as though he was going to reveal something big.  
“Of all the places to haunt an ice-cream parlour ain’t so bad, though I’d much rather go for a spooky mansion or some dark corner of the woods.”  
Pidge rested her elbows on the table and piped up again, “i think a bouncy castle is more your speed,” and then dug around in her pocket and fished out a handful of coins. The fluorescent lighting in the arcade reflected in her large frames and gave her eyes a devious glint, “Anyway, who’s ready to play?”

They soon jumped out of the booth towards the games and settled on one to try their hand at, after years of rushing here after school and boring weekends during the term they could safely say that they were pretty damn good at these games. Hunk and Pidge settled on Joust whereas Lance got to his all time favourite- Time Pilot. He slotted his coins in and listened to the familiar sound of the soft clunks it gave as it tumbled through the machine to make the pixels flash and start up. He navigated his through the first few levels pretty easily, managing to avoid the enemy bullets but it was the space section with the mothership that always caught him off. He tried to zone out all the other sounds around him: the bearing shooting sounds from other games, the mechanical whirr of the claw machines, the kids cheering in victory, and the general chatter of other visitors. This was now his only focus. With his eyes glues to the screen his wrist moved the joystick with skill and precision, manoeuvring the fighter jet round the screen to destroy the mother ship. When he managed to pass the level he relaxed a little and died right before he could use his play to defeat the boss. When the game over screen tauntingly flashed up, Lance submitted his name to the scoreboard, well ‘Lance’ didn’t fit and neither did ‘sharpshooter’ so he always used ‘Blue’. If asked Lance would say he was proud of a lot of thing- his ability to eat an entire pint of ice cream without brain freeze, how he can ride a bike with no hands, his siblings, but this leaderboard would definitely top the list, last time he checked he had managed fill all top 10 spaces on there and he was certain that wasn’t going to change. Well, this time he almost couldn’t believe his eyes, he even rubbed them several times to make sure what he was seeing was real.  
“Red, that’s just as unimaginative as yours,” Pidge said, looking over Lance’s shoulder to the screen.  
Lance’s face scrunched up, “Who the hell is this guy?” It wasn’t as if this so called Red had taken a spot at the bottom of the list, not 6 or 5 either, he had wormed himself into the number one spot with quite the gap between himself and Lance’s highest score.  
“Hey, let’s take your mind off it, want another milkshake?” Hunk tried to reason.

And so Lance had another milkshake but this time in a styrofoam cup and stood to the left of Pidge as she tried to (unsuccessfully) grab at one of the plush toys in there. He lent against the glass box as he drained the cup and almost absentmindedly spoke. “I’m bringing someone to the movies with us Thursday,”  
Hunk lifted his face up from the claw to face Lance, “Cool, who is it?”  
“It’s just Keith.”  
The claw dropped the toy it was clutching close enough to the landing area that it bounced off the plastic rim and just miss it, retreating back to it’s settled position above. “Keith? As in rude neighbour who slammed the door in your face Keith?” Pidge asked as she could finally concentrate on her two friends.  
“Yeah, we bumped into each other a couple times and I don’t know, he doesn’t seem so bad”  
“So you invited him to the movies?” Pidge said almost accusingly  
“It’s a little more complicated than that, you see there’s this big tour thing he’s agreed to go on.”  
“That’s impressive, you ever think about becoming a door to door salesman?”  
“You know what, I’ll put that on my list of possible career options.” 

——————

Lance knocked on the door then twisted the leather strap of his watch around his wrist in nervous anticipation; He then looked down at his slightly stained white t-shirt and wondered if he had enough time to run across the street and change his shirt again. The sound of the door creeping open snapped him out of his thoughts but it wasn’t Keith that opened it. No, it was a pretty girl with long blonde hair, Romelle he guessed, or maybe there were numerous girls with blonde hair that Keith hid away in his house, who knew. “You must be Lance, I’m Romelle,” She greeted him. So he was right, he smiled a little at that. “Keith should be down in a bit but here, come in.”  
Lance took a tentative step inside the house for the first time.  
“Thanks.”  
“You know, when he said he was going somewhere with someone I was pretty shocked, he doesn’t make friends that easily,” She wandered further into the house and Lance felt obligated to follow her inside, although taking in the surroundings as he went. There were boxes upon boxes of stuff littered inside, some with its contents spilling onto the floor and some hazardly piled up like a giant jenga tower. In one of the rooms they passed there was a battered up sofa in a corner with a giant dog softly snoring on top of it.  
“Well, I did kind of force him into it,” Lance eventually responded  
“Yeah, that sounds about right.”  
They ended up in a quaint kitchen at the back of the house overlooking the garden with its overgrown weeds, there was a mismatch of plates and cooking equipment over the counters and a worn oak table just off to the side, tying everything together. For the gloom of the rest of the house, the kitchen was actually reasonably bright with the natural light from the sun which is yet to go down streaming in though the open windows and the extremely thin cotton curtains blowing gently in the breeze. “Sorry for the state of the place, I know it’s a mess and we really should start unpacking.” Romelle said with a light laugh.  
Lance stopped his (quite obvious) looking around and hoped his expression gave a look of curiosity not disapproval before quickly blurting out “No it’s fine! I could always help you with unpacking sometime if you want.”  
“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t do that to you.” She swiftly moved to one of the stacks of plates, her long skirt swishing as she did, and began filing away the assortment of plates in different drawers. “So, have you lived here long?”  
Now this was the time for Lance to stop being awkward and ease into a conversation, he was usually good at those. “Yeah, nearly all my life actually- I moved here when I was really young.”  
“Oh, where from?”  
“Cuba.”  
“I heard it’s beautiful there.”  
He thought back to what he could remember from his early childhood- soft images of his mum and him laughing and playing on a beach, the waves rolling against his ankles and the small apartment of which they used to live in. “Yeah, it really is. So, where you guys come from?”  
“Here and there, we move around a lot.”  
Lance paused slightly, conflicted between wanting to ask more and the the possible reason why she gave the vaguest answer possible “And what brings you here of all places?”  
“Just finding a nice place to settle down I guess, somewhere quiet.”

And at that a voice came from the door, “Hey Lance, I’m ready to go now.” Lance turned his head to where Keith was standing, awkwardly shifting his weight between each leg. He was wearing the lanyard.  
“Have fun,” Romelle smiled as the two boys closed the kitchen door and strolled outside.  
“Yeah I figured she would’ve taken you to the kitchen, it’s probably the neatest part of the house right now. So, you gonna tell me where we’re going now?”  
“Don’t worry about that, just follow me.”  
“Very reassuring, for all I know you could be taking me somewhere to kill me.”  
Lance chuckled “Do I look like I’m going to kill you?”  
“Frankly, yes. You have that smooth easy going personality that all serial killers have.” Keith said with a straight face.  
“Well I guess you’ll see when we get there.” Lance grinned widely at him and he returned a small smile. “I’m already getting you to show emotions, I’m a miracle worker. By the end of this summer you’ll be more alive than you’ve ever been.”  
Keith nudged Lance lightly with his elbow, “shut up,” he muttered, obviously not meaning it much. 

They resumed most of their walk with Lance pointing out the tiniest things about the town and explains some history behind them, most of them fake. Keith refuses to believe that that ice-cream parlour sold JFK his first scoop, no matter how much Lance swears it’s true. “He never had a single lick of ice-cream till he came here, quite tragic really. He didn’t even know how to eat it”  
“That’s complete bullshit.”  
“How do you know? Have you asked him?” Keith then rolled his eyes at that. “Exactly!” Lance exclaimed. “Maybe Neil Armstrong stored some moon dust in the jar on that window display and maybe JFK did eat his first ice-cream here, this town is full of amazing things.”  
“I doubt it.”  
Lance sharply stopped in front of the movie theatre, “And we’re here now.”  
“The movies?”  
“Yeah. What, do you not like movies or something?”  
Keith was silent. “Well I just haven’t watched many.” He said, quiet and almost defensively  
“Woah then I definitely chose the right first place to go. My friends are waiting inside, we’re watching Killer Klowns from Outer Space it’s gonna be so terrible, you’ll love it.” Lance explained  
A look of confusion crossed Keith’s face but he then followed Lance inside, thankful for the air conditioning in there.

Lance spotted Pidge and Hunk looking at the movie posters for some other upcoming films and introduced Keith to the two of them. Keith managed to mutter out a quick greeting and answer any question he was asked but besides from that kept to himself mainly, but it wasn’t going particularly badly. Maybe this would go alright, and maybe he would become a part of the group and maybe they could all hang out together some more and all go the arcade and mess about doing whatever. Lance walked over to the counter for some popcorn- two bags, mixed.  
“Lance, hurry up so we can go in.” Pidge called to him.  
“You guys go in first, I’ll catch up.”  
So they disappeared into dark of the screen room. 

It wasn’t much longer for Lance to follow them inside and sat himself in the only available seat on the row next to Keith, “i got you some popcorn, makes the whole experience better,” he whispered to Keith as he handed him the bag.  
“Oh, thanks.”  
And they spent the next hour and thirty minutes watching clown looking aliens kill people which was simultaneously terrible and great.

——————

“Thanks, I really enjoyed that,” Keith said on their walk home. It was the only thing either of them had said since saying goodbye to Pidge and Hunk.  
“I’m glad you did, looking forward to the other things I’m gonna drag you to?”  
Keith looked up at him and responded “No,” although they both knew he meant otherwise, the air was slightly cooler now and it was a nice evening to walk with a friend Lance thought.


	4. Chapter 4

Backs against the wall and trampling over the weeds pushing through the cracks on the floor they squeezed forward, “Do you actually know where you’re going?” Keith asked with a hint of annoyance in his voice. Lance paused for a moment, letting his body fully rest against the mesh wire fence where a piece of exposed wire jabbed him in his shoulder,  
“It’s all part of the experience,” he assured Keith. Keith in return just sighed and willfully accepted his fate to follow Lance to the ends of the earth if that’s where he led him. So onwards they crept, the branches from the trees the other side of then fencing straining against their confines and obscuring the path even more. Soon they reached their ‘destination’, a wall painted the same aged cream colour as the rest of the school, minus the vibrant graffiti that scarred the rest of the walls (Lance told Keith there was an ongoing war between the artists and the faculty so he’d better get used to them appearing the wildest places). “Here, follow me,” he called back to Keith, with a cheeky glint in his eye.   
He walked forwards until he was only inches away from the wall then gripped one of his hands around the holes in the fence; with a jump he pulled his legs up and slammed them against the walls for leverage, making the fence shudder as he did so. Then he slotted his shoe into one of the holes and pulled himself up to the top of the wall. When he got up he sat there, the sun gleaming behind him and making his edges glow with a somewhat fuzzy hue and he beamed down at Keith, “come on.”

Keith followed his movement with surprising ease and sitting next to Lance in no time, the leader in question was reaching across the building and tried to jimmy a window open with a rogue branch. Lance muttered a small ‘fuck’ when it snapped but Keith stayed there as silent as ever, surveying him with a quiet curiosity and dug into his pocket for a small pocket knife, which he handed to Lance. “Oh, thanks,” Lance replied, and finally got the window open and slipped inside. “You ready for your school tour?”   
“Remind me again why we’re not doing this when it’s actually open?” Keith said while moving his body along the wall and into the open window.  
“Cause where’s the fun in that?”   
They had landed in a cramped janitor closet that still smelt slightly damp, Lance immediately squatted down to deal with the lock on the door and Keith got busy inspecting the various supplies on the shelf. “How’d’ya find this route anyway?” He asked.  
Lance appeared not to have heard him and finally exclaimed “Bingo!” When the door gave way and spilt them into the vast hallways of the school.   
“I’m more of a bridge player myself,” Keith responded. Lance chuckled slightly and opened his arms, as if he was a presenter on an elaborate quiz show, to showcase the full ‘glory’ of the empty corridor.   
“Thoughts on your new school?”  
“I’ve seen better,”  
“That’s cause you haven’t truly experienced it yet, and today that’s gonna change,”  
Keith stepped more into the middle of the corridor and could already smell the stress and teen angst that would rush in as soon as the first bell of term rang. “Yeah, I almost forgot that this school only admitted two students,” Lance then rolled his eyes slightly and grinned,  
“they didn’t write that on the pamphlet?” Lance asked, Keith shoved his hands back into his pocket, already feeling awkward and small in the overbearingly empty halls. Lance could sense the uncomfortable aura that now surrounded the both of them, “Let the tour,” he paused for dramatic effect, “commence” he finished that statement with a deep bow, extending his left arm out, “After you m’lady.”  
“Aren’t I already on a tour?” Keith held up his lanyard for proof  
“Call this a sub-tour, one of the many perks for the full Lance McClain experience,” Lance clearly bullshitted.   
Lance could see where Keith was getting that ‘off’ feeling, the halls usually jam-packed with students at their locker or hanging around in large groups even though it was a busy time and there were actually people stuck behind them trying to get through were all just gone and left a sort of haunting feeling. For some reason it made him feel so much more isolated, he’s had dreams before where everyone in town just vanished and left him behind, he’d go round to all the houses calling, yelling, screaming for people and he’d finally come to the school where it’d look eerily like this and just…collapse.  
“Hey…you alright?” Keith asked, genuinely looking concerned.  
Lance blinked up from his thoughts and took a deep breath, “Sorry, just spaced out for a bit.” Keith being here actually made him feel little more secure in his self, Keith himself looked around then gave a small smile that was gone in the blink of an eye,  
“if you say so.”

The beginnings of the tour started on the floor they were already on, weaving through the various classrooms and to the quaint art studio showcasing the hours of work from AP art students, and others, including one which vaguely looked like a dragon about to devour a scared pig-human hybrid. “the principle,” Lance pointed out, his finger towards the pig-human, “it’s another masterpiece from our friend the graffiti artist.”   
Keith thought back to the picture of the elusive principle that hung in the opening hall, “the resemblance is uncanny.”

——————

“And here, the school’s crowning glory!” Lance swung open the door and they crashed against the walls with a bang, hearing it made him cringe a little, ‘that’s gonna leave a mark,’ he thought to himself. “The famous Westview Lions,” the finished. There was no need to turn on the lights, as the basketball court was filled with hazy light where the sunbeams slanted in through the windows at the top of the walls. “The classrooms may be falling apart but at least they have a top-notch court,” Keith moved across the sports hall to the bleachers to watch Lance, still in the middle of the room. “Oh but the swimming pool, okay so I don’t give a shit about basketball but the pool here is glorious!” Lance leant his head back, exposing more of his tanned neck and closed his eyes, “Fuck! Now that’s a thing of beauty, remind me to show it to you later.”  
“What? oh um sure.”

Keith brought his legs up and sat on the bleachers cross-legged, now watching Lance dribble with a ball he seemed to have pulled out of nowhere. He began dribbling it down the court, aimed for the net and chucked it across, it rebounded against the backboard with a heavy thud and ricochetted back towards the boys, Keith ducking slightly out of instinct. Lance chased after the ball, dribbling it back before throwing it in Keith’s direction. “You play?” Keith asked, catching the ball and immediately throwing it back to Lance.  
“A little, played a lot when I was younger, I was a tall kid you see so just kinda got,” He threw it up into the air with one hand and caught it with the other, “roped into doing it.” The ball then got placed onto one his fingers and he got it to spin, “Then the other kids all got growth spurts as well so I just,” Slam, “Stopped. So, you do any sports?”  
Keith snorted, “yeah, that’s unlikely.”  
“Oh yeah I forgot, your hairstyle screams edgy loner kid.” Lance called as he tried for another basket but missed yet again. Keith uncrossed his legs and strolled up to Lance, taking the ball from his hands and grinned as he aimed for the net and shot, it slipped through the net with ease and bounced on the scuffed linoleum floors.   
“Yeah, that’s about right.”  
“Alright, I’ve got one more trick up my sleeve for the essential Westview experience,” Lance said, rather it was in his pocket and he brought out a joint and a lighter, “Here.”  
“Under the bleachers?”  
Lance smirked in response, “How did you know?”

They manoeuvred past the metal bars and made their way to the middle of the bleachers, the sunbeams jutted in through the gaps in the rows of benches, drawing shadows across their faces. Lance lit the blunt and took a hit before passing it over to Keith, who jolted slightly when their fingers brushed together for a split second. Lance couldn’t help but admire how the other boy looked as he slowly inhaled then exhaled the smoke, the languid movement of his chest up and down and how he tipped his chin up slightly when blowing out without a care in the world- time seemed to slow down for the both of them. They continued to pass it, their breath heating up the little space in-between them and chuckling softly as their minds become fuzzy and the word seemed a little brighter.   
“Thanks… for the tour, and just everything else, I guess,” Keith managed to get out, choosing every word carefully with his brow furrowed slightly in concentration. Lance thought he looked like a little kid, it was kinda cute.   
Lance widened his smile, “Yeah no problem, knew you’d come round eventually.” Keith sighed in feigned annoyance at that, “You know it didn’t even take as long as I thought it would,” Lance said matter of factly.  
“You calling me easy?”  
“Well, when you put it that way,” Lance drew out the last words and raised his eyebrows. Keith laughed at that, genuinely laughed (maybe a drug-infused one but still one by any means) and it made Lance feel a patch of warmth, as if the sunlight penetrated straight through his skin to light up his insides. He tried to push that aside. “I guess I just always knew you were a big softy.”  
“Excuse me, children cower as I walk past and old women faint at even the sight of me-“  
“You’re just that appalling,” Lance chimed in and received a light punch on the shoulder for his comment.   
“Either way, I could definitely beat you up.”  
Lance held up his hands in mock surrender “Oh I’m so scared.” They both chuckled at that and a light mist of silence fell on them, “You know what, lets test that out.” He said firmly.   
Keith looked at him with slight concern, “You sure about that?”  
“Maybe not fighting but I’ve got a better idea.” He jumped up quickly, and hit his head of one of the metal beams, “Fuck,” Keith, still sprawled across the floor with his miles of legs had a burst of laughter and pulled himself up too, managing to avoid any beams. “Showoff,” Lance muttered.

“Okay so round that corner down the hall there’s a notice board, that’s the finish line,” Lance said then looked over to his opponent, who was studying his route.  
“I’m ready.” Keith responded, eyes locked forwards, hands gripping the sides of the janitor basket and foot placed firmly on the hold.  
“On my mark, ready, set,” There was a long pause where Lance looked at Keith one more time, determination stamped in his eyes “Go!”  
Their feet pushed off from the ground, making their trolleys fly down the corridor, wheels squeaking against the polished floors and swaying side to side. Lance felt a rush with the wind in his hair and going what felt like 30 miles per hour, just hurtling himself down the school corridor. He was in the lead at the moment but Keith was only a split second behind him and quickly gaining speed. Lance put his foot on the floor again to give it more push but saw Keith in his peripheral vision swaying his cart towards him, in an effort to knock him over. Only a small bump was managed but it was enough for Keith to then take the lead, “Hey! You can’t do that! That’s defiantly cheating!” Lance called out.  
“Well, you never said I couldn’t!” Keith called back, speech laced with laughter. His laugh echoed down the corridors and Lance knew he had to catch up but with the corner coming up he needed to play it smart. At the turn Keith tried placing his foot on the floor to steer right but veering wildly off track and slowed his cart down tremendously, whereas Lance was able to quickly manoeuvre round and was now back in the lead. The final stretch. The end was in sight, so close but Keith was now right beside him, matching him beat by beat and now side by side. Adrenaline coursing through their veins both boys pushed through trying and whooshed past the board, Keith mere milliseconds before Lance. But both boys, whether rejoicing in their victory or not, were going too fast to stop their carts barrelling headfirst into the wall.

Crash, they were knocked to the floor and left in a heap while their carts fell back. Groaning in pain Lance said, “We probably should’ve thought that through.”  
“Yep,” Keith agreed then managed a weak smile, “I won.”  
“I demand a rematch,” Lance said feebly, “But right now I just wanna stay here, juuust for a minute.”

——————

Lance had his hand and a portion of his leg dipped into the cool water of the pool, lounging on the poolside next to Keith. “You know, this summer won’t even matter?” He contemplated out loud, staring up at the high ceiling of the pool.  
“What do you mean?”  
“Well, when you think about it, this is just a high school summer, it’s gonna end and it’s gonna be completely inconsequential when we’re older and have jobs and shit.”  
“So?”  
“So, it doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things.”  
“If you’re saying that I guess nothing really matters in the grand scheme of things, individually we are completely well,” Keith paused for a second, and thought hard about it, “useless, but why is it important to matter?”  
Lance closed his eyes, listening closely to the sounds of the little waves he made with his hand slowly treading the water and the hum of the overhead lights and said, “I don’t know, but doesn’t it scare you?”  
“A bit I guess, but there are scarier things out there, and we just need to live our lives and that’s it, that’s enough for each person.”  
“Huh.”   
The few spots of natural light danced on the edge of the pool, but most were washed out by the harsh lights above, illuminating all corners of the room. This is where Lance felt at home, his worries felt like they were being smoothed over as soon as he stepped in and in the water he could truly be himself, even during tournaments when the roaring crowd were almost defending on the poolside in the water he could just block them out, easy as that. He grew up around water, even when the sea wasn’t near he’d spend hours in the bathtub, his own little paradise, pretending to be a sea monster or just simply enjoying the feeling of weightlessness.   
“Hey Keith,” Lance, said softly, as if making sure the other boy was still there.  
“Yeah?”  
“Tell me something about you.”  
“Like what?”  
“I don’t know, just a fun fact.”  
“Well,” Keith started, trying to think about what he’d have to bring to the table, “My mum was in the military, so I grew up around military bases.”  
“Woah, that’s so cool,” Lance said, genuinely meaning it, it caused Keith to get lost in his memories in a bit, with only his soft breathing showing he was still there.  
“Yeah I suppose it kinda was, I learnt a bunch of cool shit from an early age like um… guns and knife tricks. You see this scar?” Keith traced a jagged scar on his cheekbone which Lance hadn’t even noticed before and Lance nodded, “I got it from some barbed wire, I thought I could go through the army course but I wasn’t allowed to try so of course I had to try it out at night, and you can guess how that went.” Lance in pushed up the hair on his forehead and showed a scar just below his hairline,  
“This isn’t as cool but I got this in 5th grade? I think it was, I got dared to climb onto the school’s roof and that was all fine but getting down I had to climb this tree and part way I tripped and smashed my head onto a rock, and boom. Apparently there was so much blood Hunk thought I died, started mentally preparing my funeral and everything.   
“Lance, do you believe in ghosts?” Keith asked, in such a gravely serious tone that Lance just had to laugh, “I’m serious.”  
“Yeah, I know. Um… a bit I guess, well I wouldn’t completely rule it and if I hear a noise in the middle of the night I’ll get scared of them but I wouldn’t call myself an active believer.” Keith nodded and took his answer into consideration, “Why?” Lance asked.  
“Just wondering, I’ve had some strange experiences lately.” With the way, Keith said that Lance didn’t want to push any further.  
“So,” Lance said in an effort to change the subject and the mood, “if you could have any superpower what would it be?”  
Keith hummed quietly while he thought before finally asking, “Well, would I be the only one with powers or would we be living in a world filled with superpowers people?”  
“What difference does it make?”  
“Well, in a world where I’m the only one with a superpower I’d have to be subtle or good for escaping, so the government wouldn’t catch and then do experiments on me.”  
“Ok, it’s a world where most people have powers.”  
“Alright, then fire- it’s powerful and destructive but also useful for everyday things, no one would want to mess with you.”  
“What about in a world where you were the only one?”  
“Reality warping,” Keith said, without any hesitation, “Very powerful but not as flashy as fire and it doesn’t really produce anything ‘real’,” he turned to Lance and asked, “What about you?”  
“Probably flying, a lot of freedom just to float above and go wherever you want to go.” Lance took his hand out the pool and turned on the side to face Keith, “Speaking of superpowers, you know what I really crave right now? A burger, like just a real good juicy burger.”  
“That has absolutely nothing to do with superpowers,” Keith responded  
Lance already had his rebuttal ready, “Actually, there was this amazing burger place called ‘Greg’s Grub’ that used to be in this town, next to the post office, their burgers where juicy and delicious, the cheese perfectly melted, and didn’t actually taste like plastic, with these perfect pickled and this sauce,” He closed his eyes and rolled back on his back, fully engrossed in his story, “Oh the sauce! It was beautiful! I would sell my kidney just to eat one of their burgers again. Oh with chunky fries and a milkshake! Gorgeous! Whoever Greg is, his superpower is definately making bangin' burgers” He kissed his fingers at the end of the statement and let go with true raw emotion, all for a burger.  
“Well what happened to them?” Keith asked  
“Oh there wasn’t enough business here apparently and they couldn’t afford two chains so they just relocated to a couple towns over, It’s like over an hour each way and I only have Blue,” he said mournfully  
“Blue?”  
“My bike.”  
Keith smiled, “Mine’s called Red.”  
“You going to the party tonight?”   
“I don’t know, I don’t really know anyone and I’m not really a fan of parties,”  
“Well, everyone’s friendlier when drunk so what better place to meet them?” Keith still looked unconvinced so Lance added, “But I’ll be there, it’s at the big house at the top of the hill, Nyma also has a habit of putting up where her driveway is so you’ll find it no problem. If you change your mind come find me, just look for the dashingly good looking guy making out with a hot blonde.”  
“So he’ll tell me where you are?” Lance chuckled and flicked some water at Keith’s face.  
“Hey!” Keith called out. Lance then turned to face Keith and flicked some more water at him, then paused only a couple inches away from him and fully locking eyes with him, for a moment that lasted more than microseconds where they were both looking. Keith’s open look turned into a face of panic then nudged Lance so he fell back into the pool, the moment was broken.

Lance allowed himself to sink to the floor until he felt the smooth surface of the pool tiles against his back the pushed back to breach the surface again, “What was that for?”  
Keith looked bemused and simply shrugged then pulled himself up to his feet to avoid any potential splash zones. Lance submerged himself back into the water and swam around for a while, quickly cutting corners and changing directions, Keith wouldn’t’ve been surprised if there he had a dorsal fin and flippers when he came up. Taking his shoes off, he chucked them over to Keith’s direction who had to duck to avoid the them but alas fell victim to one of the spinning laces, “You know the least you could do would be to help me out,” Lance suggested as he swam to the edge and held out a hand for Keith to grab a hold of.   
“No way,” Said Keith, “Don’t you think I know exactly what you’re gonna do? And there’s a ladder right there.”  
Lance batted his eyelash in an exaggerated matter, “Oh come on,” He said, the very picture of innocence. Keith gave in his cautiously took hold, as soon as he did he felt a loss of balance then a giant splash as cool water encompassed him.  
Lance laughed and Keith couldn’t help but smile, “I can’t believe you actually fell for that.”  
Keith responded with a splash of water in Lance’s face and Lance quickly rebutted with some splashes of his own. They floated together in the middle of the pool, trading quips and laughter until their fingers pruned up and their clothes got too heavy.  
They received some odd stares walking back home sopping wet but it was worth it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took quite a while to come out, I have brief spurts where I like to write and then completely go off it for a long time. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and let me know if there's anything in particular you'd like to see and I'll try to add it in :)

**Author's Note:**

> So this chapter is just setting it all up, I promise they'll interact a lot more in the next chapter.


End file.
